Running
by baconfries10
Summary: Written before season 2 : A new girl to McKinley high has a secret, something she wants to forget. OC/Kurt/Mercedes FRIENDship.
1. Prologue

There was a small dark windowless room that held only a single bed, a set of drawers, the dust that had gathered on them and some cobwebs dangling from the ceiling and the baby pink walls. The bedroom door hadn't been used for almost ten years and groaned loudly when it was pushed open. Through it came a girl in her mid-teens with long ash blonde hair and very pale skin, wearing a green long sleeve t-shirt, black fingerless gloves, washed out baggy jeans and red and white converse shoes carrying a large rucksack on her back and a light black waterproof jacket in her hand. She switched the light on. She sighed and shook her head slightly at the state of her old bedroom. _She could have at least cleaned up, it's not like she didn't have a week notice _the girl thought_ Urgh, I better go get the stupid polish then. _The blonde threw her jacket on top of the bed and dumped her bag on the dusty carpet and exited the room, leaving the door open.


	2. New

**I realize I forgot to put a disclaimer on my first part, so yeah, I don't own glee, only the plot and a few characters. This is my first attempt at a glee fan fiction so please tell me if I've done something wrong. So here's the 1st chapter for the people who wanted it. Thanks.**

"Alice! _Alice! _**Alice**! Come on, get up for school!"

_Great, time for school _she thought as she threw her bed covers off of her. She sluggishly got out of bed, dragged a brush through her hair until it was reasonably tidy, went over to her drawers and pulled out clothes at random: a grey t-shirt, a navy blue hoody and a pair of brown combat trousers and took them with her as she walked out of the room.

_The first day of school in a place I hadn't been in since I was 6, fantastic_. A silver BMW pulled up outside William McKinley High School, driving it was a woman in her 30s with a curled bleach blonde hairdo who was practically caked in make up, wearing a tight leopard patterned v-neck and an equally as tight leather skirt. Sitting in the passenger seat was Alice, a scruffy tomboy wearing highly mismatched clothes. The girl took a deep breath, grabbed her bag from the floor and opened the car door. She stepped out and turned to faced the woman.

"I'll see ya after school then Don- mum" she said putting on a smile.

"Sure, okay. I'm busy later so you'll have to get a ride with Anna, all right?" she replied while examining herself in the wing mirror.

"Er, yeah, em, bye then."

The teen backed away from the car and closed the door and her mother drove away. She gulped and spun around to look at her new school. She sighed and began to walk.

"Hey! Boy!" a girl shouted from behind. Alice didn't bother looking round, she knew who it was. The girl who yelled caught up with her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hello Anna, what do you want?" Alice said while rolling her eyes. She then looked at her half-sister who was now walking alongside her wearing a red and white cheerleading uniform with her blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail.

"Ah, nothin', just wanted to welcome you to this beautiful school." she said with a smirk. "Oh, and to tell you not to say to anyone that we're related, because you're a complete embarrassment. Okay?"

Alice huffed.

"Whatever. Thanks for the support sis"

"You're welcome. Well, bye, before anyone sees us together" and she hurried away to the front doors and went inside.

_You would have thought she'd be at least a little bit nicer to me after... after what happened. _Alice thought as she walked up to the school. The bell went just as she got inside. Quickly, she pulled out the map her mum was sent a couple of days ago and looked for the principles office.

She found her way there without any wrong turns and walked up to the lady who was at a desk in front of the office, in the room behind her she could clearly see him on his laptop.

"Yes?"

"Em, I'm Alice Johnson, this is my first day here. I was told to come to the principles office when I arrived"

"Fine, okay. I'll tell him you're here" she put her finger on a button on a phone, Alice, could hear the phone go off in the office and wondered why there was any point in having it.

"The new girl is here sir" she said into the phone. After a second, she put it down and said

"You can go in now"

Alice walked into the office.

"Welcome to William McKinley" said the principles, he held out his hand and Alice shook it, she remained standing.

"You got the map of the school then?" he asked, Alice nodded.

"Right well, classes start in two minutes, my secretary will give you your timetable, I hope you have a lovely time, goodbye" he said smiling.

"Goodbye" Alice said returning a small smile and walked out. She went up to the lady and was given her timetable.

_I kinda wish I had said to my mother what classes I wanted _she thought, she looked at what she had first, Spanish. _The only word I know in Spanish is 'hola' s_he shook her head and sighed as she walked through the sea of high school kids coming out of their home rooms.


	3. Sign up

**I took a while editing this chapter, trying to get the characters as right as I could, please tell me if I got something wrong because I would really apprecate it. I don't own glee by the way. Thank you to the people who have favorited/followed this, it means a lot. **

**P.S. Some things will be explained later I promise. **

_Well that was a complete disaster _Alice thought as she walked out of English. _First I get _everything_ wrong in Spanish and had to ask Mr Schuester what every word meant. Then I get told I'm spelling things wrong in so called 'English'. The last time I checked you spell centre 'c-e-n-t-r-e' not like 'c-e-n-t-e-r'. The blonde_ shook her head, lost in thought. A big built boy wearing a red jacket shoved passed her and sent her towards two unsuspecting students standing next to lockers in deep conversation. She managed to stop herself before hitting them but came very close to.

"I'm sorry" she said, flustered, stepping back. "A guy pushed into me, I didn't mean to"

"Hey, it's okay. Where're you from?" said a black girl about a foot smaller than Alice wearing brightly coloured top, probably noticing Alice's accent.

"Oh, uh, Scotland."

"Wow, that's in Europe isn't it?" she asked, Alice nodded in reply.

"My name is Mercedes Jones by the way, this here is my man Kurt Hummel" she smiled and gestured to the boy next to her who had taken out a mirror of his locker and was examining his hair (which was dark'-sh brown and parted at the left) in its reflection. He was wearing an army-type coat with skinny jeans. He looked round at the new girl, looked her up and down with a scowl on his face, then gave her a half-hearted smile that looked more like a grimace.

"I'm Ali. Um, Ali Johnson" she said to Mercedes, not wanting to look at the boy in case she gave away how offended she was. "Well I'll see you around then" smiling at the girl.

"Bye Ali!" Mercedes said, smiling kindly. Ali walked off, not wanting to be near that guy for much longer. _What was _his _problem?_

She walked along the corridor, heading for the lunch hall and noticed a board covered with sign-up forums, she walked up to _it. Well, it will give me something to _do she thought. Ali looked around for a few minutes, then signed her name for the girls soccer team, girls basketball team and art club which took up most of her lunch times. As she turned to walk away, Ali noticed another sheet under a few others with the letters 'Gl' showing at the top. There was no other sheets covered up so Ali moved the papers out of the way and read 'Glee Club – show choir'.

She blinked back the tears and signed it. The bell rang, Ali quickly pulled her timetable and map out to find her next class.

The next couple of days went by smoothly, Ali could now remember the school layout and no longer needed her map, she hadn't made friends yet, or had she really talked to any other students except from the two on her first day, she but was fine with that. She struggled with most of her classes, she hadn't taken more than half of them before moving here, she made frequent mistakes and usually got frustrated, but the teachers where nice. She got into the girls Soccer team, (was made a midfielder) and made the basketball team but was just a sub. The next thing she had to do was audition for the show choir (you didn't have to do any tryouts for Art club). She was to go to the choir room on Friday after school for an audition. She knew exactly what song to sing, it fit perfectly.

_You can do this, it's just like the one at home, it's easy, you wont mess up _Ali thought as she approached the choir _room. It's only Mr Schuester, he's nice. _She opened the door, entered and gulped. The room had a large empty area at the front, with steps and chairs at the back and an office at the side, there was a black grand piano next to the door with a man with blonde hair and a beard sitting at it, so it wasn't just Mr Schuester, Ali took a deep breath.

"Hi Ali" Mr Schuester said when he noticed her. He was standing next to the piano.

"Hello sir" she said politely.

"Hey, call me Mr Schue, everyone else does" he said smiling.

"Okay" said Ali, returning the smile.

"So, lets get this audition done then. You know what song you're singing right?" Ali nodded and said,

"'When You Were Young' by The Killers" Mr Schues eyebrows raised a fraction.

"All right then, Brad?" he looked over to the piano man, who nodded. Ali walked into the middle of the room and took another shaky breath as the intro started and cleared her throat. She sang the song an a bit higher than the original, because, she may have a low voice, but it wasn't _that_ low.

"You sit there in your heartache

Waiting on some beautiful boy to

To save you from your old ways

You play forgiveness

Watch it now

Here he comes

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus

But he talks like a gentleman

Like you imagined

When you were young

Can we climb this mountain

I don't know

Higher now than ever before

I know we can make it if we take it slow

Let's take it easy

Easy now

Watch it go

We're burning down the highway skyline

On the back of a hurricane

That started turning

When you were young

When you were young

And sometimes you close your eyes

And see the place where you used to live

When you were young"

Mr Schue held up his hand to stop Brad and he did so. _Oh, crap, I must be really bad, maybe all Americans are usually pro-like singers_ she thought looking worried.

"That was absolutely amazing Ali, great job" Mr Schue said looking genuinely impressed. Ali smiled, looking relieved.

"So, am I in?" she asked, still smiling.

"Of course, I'll see you on Tuesday at lunch"

"Thanks Mr Schue! See ya." Ali said joyfully and left the choir room. She turned and saw a red and white figure disappearing hastily round a corner. W_hy would anyone be around here at this time?_ she thought, then shrugged and carried on towards the exit.


	4. Mental Assessment

**This chapter mostly just to explain some things. It took me ages to figure out how to write it properly, so I hope you like it.**

**Thank you to k9mark4 for reveiwing**

** and to anyone who has put this story on alert **

In an empty corridor Kurt Hummel was walking to his locker with a bag on his left shoulder. When he got to it he twisted the lock to put the combination in, opened it and placed the bag inside, then closed it again. The boy walked off in the opposite direction he had came, this time heading for the playing field outside. He passed the choir room and stopped, a vaguely familiar voice was coming from it.

He looked through the glass window in the door.

"'When You Were Young' by The Killers" the voice said. _That's the girl Mercedes was talking to on the first day _he thought, _yeah, I remember, the one with less than zero fashion sense_ he thought and shook his head.

"All right then, Brad?" said the voice of Mr Schuester. The piano played a unknown tune, the girl who looked very nervous coughed quietly. _Urgh, what _is_ she wearing today?_ The girl in question was wearing a red and black t-shirt with 'I heart football' on the back with a soccer ball printed on the front (which was at least two sizes too big), a purple and black striped sweat band on her left wrist, baggy light blue jeans and white sneakers. _Did she get dressed in the dark or something?_

"You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to, to save you from your old ways"

Kurt was surprised, the girls voice was quite deep._ It didn't seem to be when she spoke, though I never really paid attention... Her accent is weird, I wonder were she's from, Europe I think she said it sounds british, sort of. What was her name again? I'm sure it was a boys name or something. _

The girl was at the chorus now and Kurt turned his attention to the song.

''He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you imagined when you were young'' she sung, while nervously tapping her left foot and staring at the back wall. She had tense shoulders but her arms where loose at her side and her feet where still. From where Kurt was standing he couldn't see her face, only her hair which was light ash, almost perfectly straight and down to her elbows in length, it didn't look like she used much products on it either, and her skin was even paler than his. _They probably don't get much sun in Britain_ he thought.

"And sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live, when you were young"

Mr Schue put his hand up to stop Brad playing. The girl shivered slightly.

"That was absolutely amazing Ali, great job" _So that's her name, it must be short for something... Oh damn, Cheerios practice, I forgot. Ms Sylvester is going to kill me._

Kurt hurried away along the corridor. _No, litteraly murder me._


	5. Glee Club

**Okay, I haven't updated this in _ages, _there's been loads of stuff happening and I've had no time. If there's any bits that don't make sense or spelling mistakes, tell me, though if you can't be bothered or don't care, that's fine too. Thank you to anyone who has put this on their alerts, and I'm sorry for keeping you waiting.** **Things are still to be explained by the way, I haven't accidently not told you anything/missed stuff out.**

The room hadn't changed much since she first arrived, though it was much cleaner, there was few visible new objects, an alarm clock, a couple of tattered books, a pencil case and some school jotters lay on top of the drawers. Ali sat on her bed in her dimly lit room bent over a lined notebook with a red pen in her right hand. She sighed, scribbled out the drawing, ripped out and crumpled the sheet and threw it across the room lightly. It landed about a metre away from the bin that she had been aiming at. She ignored it and started a new drawing. She started with a wobbly stick man figure kicking a misshapen ball, then slowly drew a messy body around it. She kept drawing over the lines she drew wrong, and in the end a huge red mass was created. She groaned and threw the pen at the bin, missing the target again. She looked down at her hands. Relaxed, both where about average in size, but with quite short fingers. The right had some very faded freckles on the back and a thin white scar on the index, next to the nail. She stretched it and turned it round, looking at it. She looked at the left. The thumb stuck out at an odd angle and across the knuckles was a pink scar, she turned the hand around with apparent difficulty, the whole palm was full of thick scars. Ali stared at it, her eyes filled with tears of sadness and frustration. She half glanced at her wrist, and looked away, turning the hand over again as to not see it. She got up from the bed, walked over to the discarded pen, picked it up and sat on the bed again, she took the notepad and started a new doodle, continuing using her right hand to draw.

It was Tuesday, end of fourth period, lunch time. Ali Johnson was walking nervously through the crowds towards the choir room. She entered, two people were already there, a really tall guy and a small brown haired girl, with her back to Ali, shuffling through sheet music on the piano, wearing a weird child and old person combination of clothes, including knee-high socks. Upon hearing the door open and close, the girl turned round, looking quite startled at first, but quickly recovered.

''Hello, are you lost?'' the girl asked, with an air of authority.

''Um.. No, I'm here for Glee Club, Mr Schue told me to come today.''

''Oh, you're the new kid he was talking about'' she looked Ali up and down with her eye brows slightly lowered, then said in a cheerful tone ''I'm Rachel Berry, the captain of Glee Club and the best singer in the group. Welcome, I hope you will prove to be a useful back up singer for me.''

''All right...'' Ali said, looking very taken aback, but had a slight smile, _is she for real?_

''Hi, I'm Finn'', the big guy said with a friendly smile.

The door opened again and Ali turned round to see, a few students streamed into the room, a muscly guy with a mohawk, two cheerleaders, a tall blond one and a brunette (about the same height as Ali), who had their pinkies linked, and a guy with a blond Bieber haircut. The dark cheerleader scowled at Ali, but the rest only looked merely merely merely as they passed. The boys went and sat down near the front, whereas the girls sat at the back. Ali followed, and went at the back, across from the girls. A few seconds later more people came in, a boy in a wheelchair who looked a bit geeky and had a sad expression rolled over near the seats, an asian boy and girl walked in shortly after, holding hands, the boy was quite tall with a grin on his face and the girl who was dressed up for what looked like Hallowe'en, also had a smile. They sat down somewhere in the middle and gazed adoringly at each other. Ali looked up from the couple and directed her eyes to the door and her heart jumped a little, the boy she had met on the first day was there, followed by Mercedes. She smiled _Oh good, someone I know _she thought. Mercedes noticed Ali and beamed at her. Her and the boy came over and sat next to Ali.

''Heya girl, I didn't know you where the singing type'' Mercedes said joyfully. Ali shrugged, still smiling. ''How are you, I haven't seen you since you smashed into us'' she asked.

''Oh, um, I'm fine, just getting used to everything and stuff'' she said looking between Mercedes and the boy, who wasn't paying much attention. At that moment, Mr Schue appeared at the doorway.

''Hey guys.'' he said to everyone, ''Ah, I see you've found your way all right'' Schue said to Ali.

''This is Ali, our new member of Glee Club who has just moved over here from Scotland, you guys have have probably seen her around'' everyone looked round at her.

''Mr Schue, can I take this opportunity to introduce our newcomer to my singing voice? I have a perfect song.'' Rachel said, standing up.

''Well, I _was_ going to tell everybody about our assignment this week and get it all organised'' he said, ''You can do your song later maybe'', Rachel sat down and huffed.

''Okay guys, this week we're going to do songs that tell us what you like, what your interests are. Now you can do it in groups or pairs or on your own, your choice. I think this would be a good way for Ali to get to know everyone'' he looked around at the students for a moment ''Go on then, first performances will be on Friday''

The room filled with chattering. Mercedes was whispering something to her friend, he looked annoyed, then nodded reluctantly, rolling his eyes, she turned to Ali.

''Do you want to one with me and Kurt? I want to hear you before everyone else does'' she said.

''Um, yeah, sure, okay'' Ali replied.

''You can come over to my house after school today, we can chose our song''

Panic flickered in Ali's face,

''Oh, sorry, can't, Donna - I mean my mum want's me back early, I've got to tidy my room'' she said quickly, barely making eye contact.

''Wow, you must be really messy, how long have you been here, like a week?'' Mercedes said, looking disappointed.

''Uh, yeah, all the packing and stuff, you know'', Ali looked at Kurt, whose eyes were narrowed and looked concerned.

''We can do it tomorrow at lunch then'' Mercedes suggested, Ali nodded, looking relieved.

Hours after school had finished Ali was in her room sat on her bed and was doing her homework; a Spanish quiz from Mr Schue and a worksheet from Biology, another subject she had never taken before. She attempted the papers for a while, guessing most of the questions for she had no clue about any of it. After about half an hour, she glanced over at her clock, 8.30 it was. She got up and put her books on the drawers, changed into her pyjamas, (a very loose blue t-shirt and some equally as baggy pyjama bottoms) turned of the light and got into bed. Soon after she fell asleep.


	6. Hot to cold

_I yelled to them, there was no answer. I couldn't breathe anymore, I felt myself getting weaker, I was going to die, just like them if I didn't help. I heard a siren from outside. I was on the floor. I got up and called out again, still they didn't answer. I fell yet again, this time I was on my stomach. I heard a great crack, I couldn't see where the noise came from. The last I remember was the pain on my shoulder, then there was nothing._

Ali woke up with a jolt. Sweat and tears running down her face. She took a deep breath and wiped the moisture from her face. She glanced over at her clock, 2:43am. She sighed, pulled the covers off of her, got up, switched the light on and sat on the end of her bed. She bowed her head and put her hands on her forehead. She was still for a moment, then her body shook and audible sobs escaped from her. She stayed there for hours, only moving when it was time to get ready for school.

Ali looked even more untidy than usual, wearing a light red longsleve and white camo trousers, as she shuffled along the corridor towards her locker, closely mimicking a zombie. Her puffy eyes had black rings around them and were half closed. She brought her hand up to her mouth and yawned. She noticed Kurt nearby at his locker fixing his hair and examining his face, but didn't approach him, she got the feeling he didn't like her very much. Ali had just took her sleepy eyes off him when she was rudely awakened by a purple slushy to the face. She gasped at the sudden coldness and stopped moving. Her eyes were stinging, not just from the ice and juice but from the tears now falling. She wasn't sure if it was the shock or the fact that someone had done such a thing. She felt a hand grab her elbow and was lead into the girls bathroom.

"You need to get that off before it drips down to your pants" a high voice that Ali didn't reconigse said.

The person continued to the sinks, took some paper towels from the dispenser, wet them and placed them in blind Ali's hand. She wiped here eyes first, so she could see her helper. She looked through the mirror and saw Kurt. _I was sure I heard a girls voice_ she thought, with a tiny frown.

"Hurry up, the syrup isn't good for the skin" he said, looking impatient, in the highest of voices.

Ali nodded, turned on the hot tap and started splashing the warmth on her face.

When she had got it all off she checked her face, which was red from the cold and her eyes where still a little swollen. She looked down at her still soaked top and tried to clean off the purple mess.

"It's gonna stain by the way" Kurt said looking apologetic. "Have you got a spare shirt?" he asked.

"Uh, no, I didny expect to have a bloody slush puppy chucked in ma face" Ali replied, annoyed at the situation, nothing like this had ever happened in her old school, she felt humiliated.

"Whoa, okay. I'll let you borrow one of mine, it might be a bit big though, but by the looks of things you don't mind oversized clothing" he haughtily replied, looking Ali up and down.

Kurt left, leaving an irritated Ali to try to get the sticky slushy dye out of her pale hair, it wasn't working.

Kurt returned with a black t-shirt, it was probably a designer but Ali hadn't a clue, and he handed it to her.

"Thanks" she said, taking it and walking to one of the stalls.

She changed and came out with the wet red shirt in her hand. Kurt was still there, waiting.

"Why did they do that to me?" Ali asked, with a sad look on her face. Kurt looked sympathetic and replied with a shrug,

"The jocks always do it to us Glee kids, we're all used to it now. Somebody should have warned you."

"But why?" she asked again, not getting a sufficient answer.

He shrugged again,

"I suppose it's because we're not cool, it's a way to further humiliate us" Ali scowled at this.

"Are you actual bein' serious? Are the kids here _that_ messed up?"

"It's horrible, I agree, but you'll just have to get used to it, there's nothing we can do"

"What about the head teacher? Why dunt he sort it out?" Ali said, raising her voice a little _how long as this been going on for?_ She thought, getting angry now.

"There's no proof, you don't even know who did it, and if you did, everyone who say would be on their side" he said.

The bell rung overhead, signalling the start of another period. Ali sighed.

"Thank you for helping me, I'm sorry for snapping at you" she said, making sure she didn't use any slang that would confuse him.

"That's quite all right, now I'd better be going" he said, leaving. "Give me back the shirt tomorrow" he called as he pushed the door open, not turning round.

Ali shook her head and left, towards her previous destination.


End file.
